In May, I attended the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) Annual Meeting and Innovation Forum in Arlington, VA. I found the meeting very informative, and was excited to see innovative programs in healthcare—especially the pharmacy initiatives. The goal of many of these initiatives is to improve the quality of healthcare, and lower overall costs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, community immunity (ie, herd immunity) occurs when a significant portion of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, and most members are protected against that disease because of the few opportunities for an outbreak. Successful vaccination reduces infection or infectiousness in certain people, and can decrease risk in other susceptible individuals in the population.

In November 2015, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) released its new 2015 guidelines for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Since the last guidelines were released in 2012, the first oral biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy has been approved, and clinical evidence has been expanding.

Characterized by a delayed acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability, vaccine hesitancy is a complex and rapidly evolving global problem attributed to factors such as complacency, convenience, and confidence. Although there is no single intervention strategy for all instances of vaccine hesitancy, the World Health Organization asserts that the most effective interventions addressing the outcome of vaccination uptake are dialogue-based, multi-component, and directly target unvaccinated or under-vaccinated populations. The following tips may be helpful when communicating with patients about their vaccine hesitancy.